The “back to the land” movement that is sweeping this nation has micro farms popping up on the grid left and right. These micro-farmers are getting back to the basics and their goal is to live a more simplified lifestyle. They live primarily in a self-sufficient manner by growing their own food, caring for smaller plots of land, and raising livestock.

The breeds that are typically chosen for homesteads and micro-farms are the heritage breeds because they have a better survival rate. However, those homesteaders that live on smaller acreage or in urban settings who cannot provide the larger areas for animals to graze have chosen micro versions of these domesticated animals. These micro breeds are bred to not only for their stature, but how much meat is butchered; and are also raised based upon their temperament, cost of raising the animal vs. it’s the price in meat, and how much land the animal will need to graze.

The Pros and Cons

Advantages of raising micro-livestock

For those of us who are unable to keep up with constant price increases at the grocery store, raising livestock that can provide you with meat, milk, cheese and eggs will help you cut your grocery budget down significantly.

This article was originally published at Ready Nutrition™ on April 8th, 2011

6 Comments

Mrs. J
on April 21, 2011 at 1:54 pm

I started looking at the pigs listed, it looks like the ‘Pigmy Hog’ is highly endangered? I’m not sure it’s even legal or where you would import one from??? LOL Anyway, I don’t know that I could find any of them besides a pot-belly from the list with any sort of availability … maybe I’m just not looking the right places online?

Regardless, the American Guinea Hog needs to be added to the list. They are a fine little pig that thrives on grazing and forage. You do NOT want to feed them grain, or they will get too fat. They are a terrific little pig (200-300# tops) that deserve to be mentioned.

I keep both chickens and geese. For preparedness, I now look at geese as being the best choice for several reasons:
• Unlike chickens (and to a lesser extent, ducks), geese can live and thrive entirely by grazing on grass and weeds. When the commercial feed runs out, my chickens may still survive, but their egg production will drop to almost nothing.
• Geese have a very well-deserved reputation for being excellent “watch dogs”. They quickly learn what and who is routine, and make a racket when something changes.
• They are far more resilient than chickens – fewer diseases, parasites, or predators.
• Geese can live up to thirty years, they reach eating size in less than a year, and produce large eggs in the Spring.
• Geese have been used in commercial agriculture for weeding crops – especially crops with sensitive root structures like cotton (there is even a breed called “Cotton Goose” that excels at weeding cotton).

For “normal times”, a flock of chickens can’t be beat for providing fresh eggs, but when life changes – radically – you’ll want geese.

Rabbits are excellent. Honestly though we’ve had much better luck with meat mutts than purbreeds. If you have just five females and one male: average litter is 8. 8×5=40×5(breedings)=200 kits. Let the 200 kits grow out to around adult size at 10 lbs each divided by half for boneless meat mass…200×5=1000lbs of meat/year! Without using pellets grow out will take about 8 months. many butcher at weaning, but it seems wasteful to me especially if you are forage feeding. The main issues are predation and housing. I feel colony housing the females and young kits cuts down on chores, allows free grazing, especially if you rotate pastures and keeps one from having to constantly make/upgrade/clean cages. In winter keeping thawed water is trouble with cages…if the colony has access to a stream it cuts that right out.